Becomings: Explorations in Time, Memory, and Futures

With the advent of the new millennium, the notion of the future, and of time in general, has taken on greater significance in postmodern thought. Although the equally pervasive and abstract concept of space has generated a vast body of disciplines, time, and the related idea of "becoming" (transforming, mutating, and metamorphosing) have until now received little theoretical attention.

This volume explores the ontological, epistemic, and political implications of rethinking time as a dynamic and irreversible force. Drawing on ideas from the natural sciences, as well as from literature, philosophy, politics, and cultural analyses, its authors seek to stimulate further research in both the sciences and the humanities which highlights the temporal foundations of matter and culture.

The first section of the volume, "The Becoming of the World," provides a broad introduction to the concepts of time. The second section, "Knowing and Doing Otherwise," addresses the forces within cultural and intellectual practices which produce various becomings and new futures. It also analyzes how alternative models of subjectivity and corporeality may be generated through different conceptions of time. "Global Futures," the third section, considers the possibilities for the social, political, and cultural transformation of individuals and nations.

Elizabeth Grosz is Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University. She is the author of Space, Time and Perversion: Essays on the Politics of Bodies; The Nick of Time: Politics, Evolution, and the Untimely; and Time Travels: Feminism, Nature, Power.